Charlotte-based entrepreneur and tech guru, Diondre Lewis, has entered the rideshare app ring and is ready to take on major players. ScoopM has already begun test rides in the Charlotte and Atlanta markets with plans to expand throughout the U.S. and United Kingdom by end of 2021.
What sets this app apart from the others is its commitment to driver and passenger safety. Lewis and his team want to reduce the number of violent assaults by doing a more thorough vetting of drivers before bringing them in.
In addition to mandatory background checks, drivers will be required to video stream every ride and there will be a “panic button” in the app that riders and drivers can use to instantly notify their emergency contacts and the police.
The idea for the company was born after Lewis saw students in his software training program, IBG Software, struggling to get to class due to not having reliable transportation. Many of the students were younger and had to rely on a parent to bring them to class. But, some nights a parent wasn’t available.
Instead, he decided to put his tech skills to greater use and introduce a service that would help them as well as others around the world.
“We’re a software company, so let’s build something that is safer,” Lewis said in a statement to The Charlotte Post. “Let’s build something that can win the trust of the parents and women that may be skeptical of using a rideshare, all by delivering something that is transparent, safe, and has a certain level of integrity.”
ScoopM is set for a soft launch in Charlotte this spring and hopes to employ nearly 10,000 drivers across the country and U.K. in the next year and a half.
“We believe that over the next five years, we can conservatively grab anywhere from 7% to 10% of the global rideshare market,” he said. “We are full speed with food delivery in Charlotte and Atlanta, and we are ramping up rideshare in both markets.
To learn more about ScoopM, you can visit the website: www.scoopme.com.
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